An Easy Spring Break: Taking a Young Child to Cancun

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader in our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

Background

Back when I was still in school, I heard about a friend studying on the East Coast who was sent back at the Cancun airport because of a visa issue. Ever since then, I’ve had an oddly deep sense of awe toward Cancun.

Last year, AMEX offered an FHR credit. At the time I didn’t have any Spring Break plans at all, so I casually booked two hotels in Cancun through FHR, and that was basically how the trip happened. Flights during Spring Break were pretty expensive, so I redeemed Delta miles for the tickets and got roughly 1:2 value out of them, which was a pretty good deal.

A few days before departure, I started looking up tips on Xiaohongshu and realized most Cancun tours are pretty hardcore. Whether it’s Mayan ruins or theme parks, they’re often three or four hours away from the Hotel Zone. That means leaving the Hotel Zone super early in the morning and not getting back to the hotel until after a full day of sightseeing, which sounded exhausting. There also isn’t that much for a three-year-old to do at the theme parks, and Mayan civilization definitely wasn’t going to interest my kid. So we picked two closer tours instead.

I saw a lot of posts saying not to rent a car, because Cancun taxi drivers basically operate like a gang and are in cahoots with the police. Rental cars are easy to spot as out-of-town vehicles, and if you go even a little over the speed limit, you can get pulled over. I also don’t speak Spanish, so I thought, forget it, I’ll just call an Uber. But Uber and other ride-hailing apps were also being squeezed out by the taxi gang, so they were basically unusable. That left only taxis and shuttles for airport transportation. To reduce uncertainty, we booked a shuttle.

Also, supposedly you should never drink tap water in Mexico, and apparently even boiling it may not be enough? Since we were traveling with a kid, we played it safe and stuck with bottled water the whole time.

Departure

On the first day of Spring Break, we got up at 4 a.m. to catch a 7 a.m. flight. My kid is older now and can help roll one suitcase, which felt very rewarding.

UberUber

The Delta lounge was already pretty crowded early in the morning. The breakfast at the lounge was nowhere near as good as lunch: fewer choices, and the taste wasn’t great either. My kid did eat a little, though. Strictly speaking, Delta Lounge charges for guests age 2 and up, but this time the front desk didn’t even ask and just let us in.

After a quick bite, we boarded. For some reason, my kid loves reading the safety card and stares at it for ages on every flight.

Once on the plane, it was the usual setup: cartoons, snacks, and drawing supplies.

This drawing package from Target is great for travel.

You have to fill out an immigration form on the plane. Make sure to fill out both the top and bottom portions. I always keep a pen in my passport holder.

After landing, we rushed over to immigration, but there weren’t many people there, so we got through in just a few minutes.

We waited quite a while for our bags, especially the stroller, which somehow got stuck on the oversize baggage belt and no one was doing anything about it??? We had to find someone to open up the belt area, and then waited forever before anyone came.

Once we had our bags, we did our usual first stop for cash and withdrew 3000 peso. The exchange rate was very good. The Schwab debit card is the GOAT.

The airport pickup confirmation included a long list of instructions, including a warning that when you exit the airport, a bunch of sharply dressed people may approach you and pretend you booked with them. That really did happen. Don’t get confused; just walk straight out the glass doors and look for the pickup sign with your name on it.

I booked the pickup through the Chase UR Portal, and it was a little cheaper than Tripadvisor. I picked something like a luxury private SUV, which cost quite a bit more than a regular airport transfer, but other than getting cold towels to wipe our faces when they picked us up, plus glass bottles of water and a bottle opener in the car (lol), it didn’t seem all that special.

We didn’t bring a car seat this time. I assumed Cancun, as basically America’s backyard, would have that kind of thing figured out, but nope. My kid just sat in the seat with the seat belt on the whole time, same as when we were in Paris...

We arrived at the hotel! Our first hotel was Canopy by Hilton, the cheapest option in the AMEX Hotel Collection.

Even though booking through FHR came with a potential complimentary upgrade, and I also have Hilton Diamond status, I still tried the sandwich trick. The front desk guy was really nice and upgraded us to a suite. He said it had the best view in the whole hotel, and he even returned my “sandwich filling” to me.

The Hotel Zone has the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other, and this hotel is on the lagoon side. The view from this room really was great: the Ferris wheel was right nearby, and the lagoon view was very open. Even after we got back to Seattle, my kid kept talking about “the hotel with the Ferris wheel.”

The view on the other side was blocked by buildings, but you could still see the ocean in two different shades.

This suite had two bathrooms; this was the one by the living room.

There were only snacks on the plane and no meal, and after 6 hours plus all the before-and-after travel hassle, we were absolutely starving. After our usual sanitizing routine (see Travel during the pandemic: the protective supplies I bring) and changing into tropical clothes, we headed to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant because FHR included a $100 credit. Calling it a restaurant is a stretch—it was really just a few tables by the pool. The pool was tiny, but the Ferris wheel view was pretty unique.

The hotel menu was also accessed by scanning a QR code.

Starting with a mojito felt like the proper way to pay respect to the Caribbean.

The octopus taco was decent—maybe because we were hungry—but it leaned a little sweet.

The tuna taco tasted much better than the octopus one and was actually quite good.

The burger was grilled really well. The patty was tender and juicy, and the seasoning was good too. Even my kid, who normally seems to live on air, was so hungry that they took big bites of it.

For the side, we ordered grilled vegetables.

These shrimp looked great and tasted great too, with a bit of Cajun flavor. Recommended.

That day’s hotel theme was a poolside music performance. A violinist was playing by the pool, and the music was fairly loud, which made for a great atmosphere.

One of this hotel’s biggest selling points is that it sits right next to the well-known La Isla Shopping Village in the hotel zone. The shopping village has brands like LV and Gucci, though Hermes is not here. There’s also no Chanel in Cancun. After dinner, my kid insisted on riding the Ferris wheel. Even though it was right in front of us, we had no idea how to get in, so we headed out and looked for the entrance while taking a walk.

Since we weren’t familiar with the layout, we made a huge loop before finally finding the entrance. Just before reaching the Ferris wheel, my kid spotted an ice cream shop and absolutely had to have ice cream. I told them that if they ate ice cream, then we wouldn’t ride the Ferris wheel on this outing, and they agreed. So we turned around and went for ice cream instead.

That night, I took a few more photos of the Ferris wheel from the room. It looked even better once it lit up after dark.

We had a snorkeling excursion early the next morning, so we got up early and ate at the hotel. Breakfast was free with Hilton Diamond status. There was a wide selection, a few hot dishes changed daily, and the offerings were fairly friendly to Asian tastes. There was also a full spread of cheese, fruit, yogurt, and pastries. As usual, we ordered made-to-order omelets, and this one was quite good—good enough to meet my standards.

Dining outside, the Ferris wheel was once again right in front of us.

The shopping center was completely empty early in the morning.

The fruit was all fresh and sweet.

I ordered my omelet at medium doneness. The eggs were soft, and the fillings suited my taste well without being too heavy.

After breakfast, we headed out for snorkeling.

This tour included transportation, and the driver arrived early. After a half-hour drive, we got to the departure point, and everyone hurried to slather on sunscreen and find a restroom.

This snorkeling trip covered three spots near Isla Mujeres and lasted about 5 hours in total. During the snorkeling portion, the captain pulled everyone along with a rope and flotation ring the whole time, so it felt fairly safe. Our kid joined us for the first two stops as well—we sat on the flotation ring while being towed along by the adults.

If you don’t want to snorkel for that long, you can swap the last two stops for time on Isla Mujeres instead. We preferred snorkeling, so we didn’t switch.

But after finishing the tour, I actually think switching would have been a good idea: the waves got rougher and rougher at each snorkeling stop, and the third stop in particular was extremely long—we stayed in the water for a full hour straight. I had taken motion sickness medicine, but I still drifted on the surface and even dozed off a few times. By the end, both my travel companion and I felt a little dizzy. There also wasn’t that much to see at the later snorkeling spot; the first two were better. And there was no food or snacks on the boat, only water. With the long duration and all the activity, everyone was starving by the end and starting to feel a little low on blood sugar.

That final hour also left both me and my travel companion sunburned, and mine was pretty bad. We usually wear long-sleeve, full-length wetsuits when going out on the water, but this time we got careless... Because we were worried about the heat, we wore regular swimsuits instead, and when we reapplied sunscreen, we missed some spots. By that evening, the backs of my upper thighs were a deep red. The last time I got sunburned was when I was 10 in Hainan. After I got burned, my dad even talked me into soaking in a hot spring, and it hurt so badly I couldn’t sleep all night. The last time my travel companion got sunburned was when we went sailing in Thailand. Not realizing how intense the sun reflecting off the water could be, they stayed on deck with me for hours without sunscreen because I was worried about seasickness, and they were totally done for afterward. This time, with some help from Dingxiang Doctor, I got through the first few days of the burn relatively smoothly using moisturizer, cold compresses, aloe, and ibuprofen all at once. The only downside is that this summer I no longer have my pale legs—cue the tears.

Along the way, the sea turned a jelly-like set of colors—about three shades in all. Even if “after Tahiti, no other sea compares,” it was still more than enough to make the whole ride feel refreshing and uplifting.

After snorkeling, we went back to the hotel. By then we had run out of small bills, so we awkwardly had to tell the driver we couldn’t tip him... In Mexico, cash tips are really needed everywhere. It’s not like in many places in the U.S. where you can just put it on a card. Next time, I’d definitely exchange more $1 change before coming.

We went back to the hotel to clean up a bit, then headed out for food. Our kid wanted to go to the beach, and this hotel didn’t have one, so we planned to walk to a nearby public beach. Before that, we found a restaurant for lunch. It was called El Fish Fritanga, and the outdoor seating was right on the sand, which was perfect for kids since they could play right where we sat.

First up: the classic Cancun internet-famous Pina Colada, basically a frozen coconut-pineapple-rum drink. If you don’t know what to order, just get this. Every restaurant has it.

They started us off with a plate of Nachos and some crackers. One of the dipping sauces was black and surprisingly spicy. I can usually handle spice pretty well, and this one was both spicy and addictive. I couldn’t stop eating it...

For mains, we ordered fried fish. It was a bit like seafood restaurants in China, where they first bring out the live fish for you to inspect, and only cook it after you say ok. We also ordered their signature octopus. It felt like every meal in Cancun came with octopus, so I guess that’s one of their specialties. Since we were starving to the point of almost getting hangry and shaky, I didn’t think either dish was amazing, but both were decent. It could also be that I was already full from the drinks... I’ve discovered alcohol seriously kills my appetite.

My partner ordered a mocktail with a name we can’t remember. It seemed like a strawberry-pineapple slush, and since it was non-alcoholic, our kid ended up drinking almost all of it.

There was another drink too, and I forgot what it was called, but the rim was coated in chili, which felt very Mexican.

After lunch, we wandered around the shops for a bit and came up empty-handed.

Then we headed to the beach our kid had been obsessing over.

People say the beaches in the middle section of Cancun’s “7”-shaped hotel zone are the best, and we happened to be staying right in that area. We went to Playa Marlin. The beach really was lovely: white, fine, and soft, though there was quite a bit of seaweed. Our kid saw the lifeguard tower and immediately became obsessed with climbing up there.

When you travel with a kid, as long as you drop them on a beach, the adults are basically free to do whatever they want. We relaxed there until it got dark, and our kid still didn’t want to leave.

The next day, despite being sunburned, we went on a Speed boat tour. This time I obediently wore a long-sleeve, full-length wetsuit. The company was called Jungle Tour Adventure Cancun. I’d definitely recommend this tour. It combines two things I love: driving a boat and snorkeling. It was also reasonably priced.

We took our time getting out in the morning and took a taxi for the first time. The hotel helped us call one and also asked about the price. Supposedly locals in Cancun can ride for 20 peso pretty much anywhere, but tourists are a different story. From our hotel to the tour site was only 6 minutes, but the taxi cost 180 peso, plus tip.

One interesting thing: the few times we took taxis in Cancun, the drivers never had change. Every time, they had to go ask other people to break our bills. We were using 500 bills, so maybe that was why, but I still don’t really get it. In Cancun, you can tip in U.S. dollars, but for actual payment, peso is usually better. It’s cheaper almost everywhere than paying in dollars.

Once we got to the tour site, everyone was given snorkeling gear and life jackets. When it was time, people took turns going to the dock to take photos. Then each family got its own boat and set off. After departure, a drone followed along taking videos and photos. Ours actually turned out pretty well, and in the end we bought the photo/video package for a little over $60 total.

This tour takes place on the Lagoon side. Driving the boat is pretty simple, and all the boats head out one after another. At one point, mine stopped moving, and the guide came over to help reverse it a bit so I could keep going. My partner said it was probably tangled in seaweed.

Along the way, we passed through two Jungle areas, a little like the alligator swamps around Miami. It was pretty fun weaving through the Jungle by boat. After about 45 minutes, we reached the snorkeling area. At that point, the guide had everyone bring their boats close together and tie them up. It takes a tiny bit of technique, but the guide was very nice and patient.

My kid has ingrown eyelashes and is very afraid of getting water in his eyes. Before this, he had never dared to wear a snorkeling mask, but here he finally took that brave first step. Even so, once he got into the water with the mask on, he got scared and started crying, then quickly climbed back onto the boat. The guide stayed on the boat with him while my partner and I went snorkeling.

The snorkeling here lasted about half an hour, and there were no fewer fish than near Isla Mujeres. Beginners should probably be able to handle it too. That said, these little boats don’t have ladders or anything, so you have to jump in and climb back up. If you can’t swim, like we once couldn’t, you may need a little mental preparation.

After we got back on the boat, our kid said, “Mom, look, I can even stay on the boat by myself and wait for you.”

While waiting for the tour, I looked up what else there was to do nearby and found another company offering a fake submarine activity. We had done something similar before in Hainan and knew it was great for little kids. The timing also lined up perfectly, so my partner and I immediately agreed to do that tour right after this one. It was only a few minutes’ walk from Jungle Tour, and the company was called Aquaworld Cancun.

This company is pretty big, with all kinds of tours departing from different docks. For Subsea, you first take a large boat and then transfer onto this semi-submarine. The awkward part was that the semi-submarine was located in the exact same area where we had just gone snorkeling, so we ended up taking the shuttle boat and retracing the same route all over again.

Still, the good thing was that this time our kid could finally see underwater. The semi-submarine is basically a boat with half above the water and half below it. You walk down from the deck into the “basement,” and suddenly you’re in an underwater world. Seating is two people per row.

The highlight at the end was a staff member dressed as a mermaid who swam back and forth a few times. Our kid was really impressed and kept talking about the mermaid afterward.

After coming back up, there was also a photo-op with the mermaid, so be ready with a tip.

By the time we got out of this tour, it was already dinner time. Before heading to Subsea, we had eaten some bread we grabbed from the hotel that morning—based on the previous day’s experience, we figured it was smart to bring some food just in case.

We ate at the crab house between the two tour companies and ordered a seafood platter. Only after going in did we realize the restaurant seemed to be fine dining.

Starving, we dug into the bread service first, and it was actually pretty good.

Their drinks weren’t ordered from a menu. Instead, a bartender pushed a cart from table to table and mixed cocktails on the spot. You just told him what fruits and what liquor you liked, and he made something for you. Of course, you still needed to have cash ready for a tip. This one was apparently strawberry, pineapple, mango rum.

This one was what my partner ordered. It was also very good, and looked great too.

This was an alligator taco. I really do love trying unusual foods... I think I may have had alligator before, and this time it tasted like firm chicken.

As usual, we ordered seafood pasta for our kid. I tried a bite and found it pretty bland.

The seafood platter came with lobster, stone crab, shrimp, and some other kind of crab legs that I’ve forgotten. Fresh seafood is delicious no matter how you eat it, and dipping it in butter made it both sinful and delicious.

One was butter, and the other was garlic.

The view outside the restaurant was nice too.

That night we went out for ice cream again. This time we picked Häagen-Dazs, which was much better than the place we had the day before.

The next day, after breakfast, I got a massage at the hotel. The massage was done in a room at the hotel, and I wouldn’t really recommend it. The masseuse’s long nails made me feel like my skin could get scratched at any moment. Afterward, we walked around the nearby mall.

We came back, checked out, and took a taxi to the next hotel—SLS Cancun. FHR did not include late checkout at this property, but after talking with the front desk, we managed to push it back to 2 pm.

SLS Cancun is at the very end of the 7-shaped hotel zone, or maybe even beyond the hotel zone altogether. The hotel is located in something like a residential complex, except the whole “complex” is made up of hotels. The surrounding area felt completely deserted—not at all like the flashy, lively hotel zone—so it was obvious this was the kind of place where you just stay on-property and do nothing else. Good thing we only booked one night.

This hotel had a welcome margarita, and our kid could have juice. As usual, I slipped the front desk a 500 peso “sandwich.” FHR had already given us one upgrade, and the front desk agent seemed ready to use that FHR upgrade to brush me off and pocket the “sandwich.” She was basically about to hand over the key cards, so I asked, “Have we already been upgraded?” Realizing I wasn’t that easy to fool, she took the key cards back and upgraded us again, this time to a JR suite.

FHR also provided a welcome gift, which made our kid very happy again. That said, the dessert itself really was not very good.

The view from this room was absolutely incredible—so beautiful.

On top of that, since we were flying back to the U.S. the next day, we had to arrange a COVID test at this hotel. The hotel was really charging a lot: rapid tests were $100 per person. Along the roads in the hotel zone, you could find testing vans everywhere for just $30. Thankfully insurance could reimburse it; otherwise it would have been better to just take a taxi and get tested elsewhere. I heard that if you stay at the hotel for three nights or more, the test might be free.

The COVID testing process was also extremely casual. A doctor came directly to the room. My appointment was for a little after 2, and our flight the next day was a little after 4. Only after booking it did I realize that would put us past 24 hours, so I called the front desk. They said it was fine and that the doctor could just change the time on the paperwork???

According to my partner, the test kit the doctor brought was the same kind distributed by the U.S. government. It felt like the doctor barely even put the swab into our noses—just touched it lightly and called it done???

We were about to head out for lunch when we were told the doctor had arrived, so we had to turn around, go back to the room, finish the check, and then head out again. The wind had been incredibly strong these past two days. We had originally wanted to eat at the restaurant on the beach, but it was so windy they couldn’t even open the umbrellas. After getting sunburned the day before, we decided to retreat to the indoor restaurant instead. The hotel has two pools: the empty one is reserved for the residential side, and hotel guests can only use the other one. Still, that pool was quite pretty too.

For lunch, I ordered a Pina Colada as usual. Every place makes it look a little different, but they all taste more or less the same. Reliably good.

My teammate ordered a mojito, and according to him, it tasted like they used tap water.

We ordered the seafood paella, and it was a complete disaster. The seafood smelled bad. After just two bites, we called the server over to complain and asked to switch dishes. I asked what he would recommend, and he said, everything on the menu??? Then I told him the seafood in the paella I had just ordered wasn’t fresh, and he said, oh, I don’t recommend that paella???

We ordered this pasta for our kid too, and honestly we couldn’t even tell what flavor it was supposed to be.

We switched to this octopus dish. The seafood was at least fresh, but the cooking was still pretty mediocre... The fries, though, were actually fried quite well.

The Tuna Taco was the only thing on the table that was actually decent.

After lunch we changed clothes and headed out to lounge by the beach and pool. I thought I saw a reef near the water and wanted to check whether we could snorkel there, but the area near the reef was all muddy sand, soft and sticky, and my feet sank right in. I was worried my shoes would get buried and I wouldn’t be able to find them, so I asked my teammate to help. He thought I myself was getting stuck, rushed over in a panic, and ended up losing his own shoes... Then, to help find them, I went back to shore to grab a snorkel mask and joined the search. In the process, he also lost his brand-new prescription sunglasses... truly a case of losing more than we bargained for.

Still, while looking for the shoes, we did see some small fish near the reef. The water by this hotel is extremely shallow, which makes it fairly safe, but do be careful not to get your shoes stuck in the mud like we did.

The beach itself had lots of shells and things like that, so it was a little painful to walk on. I swam all the way back to shore collecting a bunch of shells for our kid. They were all very intact, and some were even still alive.

As it started getting dark, we moved from the beach to the pool. The infinity pool was pleasantly warm, and the part connected to the jaccuzi was even warmer. Soaking there in the slightly chilly evening sea breeze felt wonderful.

After swimming, we did some last-minute maneuvering to use up the FHR credit and urgently booked a facial. The spa environment was quite nice, with a relatively uncommon cold plunge and hot chair. The facial itself was very relaxing, and I even fell asleep for part of it. That said, it felt a bit understaffed: the same person doing the facial was also working the front desk.

Later that night, we got hungry again back in the room and ordered a room service sandwich. Honestly, it was pretty good—maybe we were just starving after an afternoon of swimming...

The lighting at night was absolutely gorgeous. In the photos you can see the other side of the hotel zone.

There were stars in the sky too.

Even though lunch was disappointing, breakfast was actually very good. It was an à la carte buffet. FHR covered breakfast, so we ordered a whole spread. This was the usual omelette.

Acai Bowl.

Eggs benedict.

Fruit platter.

The scrambled eggs were surprisingly delicious—much better than expected.

We still weren’t full after eating all that, so we added a truffle fried egg dish. Very unusual, and pretty tasty too.

For the airport transfer, we chose Cancun Shuttle, and it was very reliable. Their online chat was convenient, and the price was reasonable too—just a little over $30 for a private car.

Once we got to the airport, a staff member came over to help us. He pushed our luggage the whole way, assisted with check-in, and even led us through something like a fast-track lane, which saved us quite a bit of time. We tipped generously at the end. The security line wasn’t very long either.

After entering the lounge, we found that the food was not self-serve and had to be ordered, but everything was pre-made—and each item somehow tasted worse than the last...

As usual, we bought some souvenirs and other little things at the duty-free shop to take home.

And then it was time to board!

Overall, this trip was still very relaxing. Forget the kids—even I can’t handle those itineraries that run 10-plus hours a day. If you want to do theme parks, staying a few extra days at Xcaret would be very convenient. I also saw on Xiaohongshu that Hyatt Ziva comes out to a reasonable per-person cost, so that might be worth trying next time, or maybe another all-inclusive resort. In any case, this was our first Cancun trip, and I’m sure we’ll be back.

Bye, Cancun—see you next time.

About the Author

This article was republished from the WeChat public account “懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐,” run by a reader from our WeChat group. The account features original posts, and interested readers can follow it.